Where’s the beef? It’s on our plates at local restaurants, but it’s costing us more, particularly for the prime, dry-aged cuts of cow Valley restaurant diners so treasure.Americans suddenly can’t get enough of the fleshy food, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association reporting that…
Polish sausage covered with bright-yellow mustard, melted Swiss cheese and onions, with eggs, potatoes and an English muffin on the side — that’s the composition of the dish called the “Saint John” on the menu at First Watch in Scottsdale. It sounds very Chicago, and very Catholic, so that’s what…
On a busy evening before the holidays, I entered Houston’s without a reservation. There was an uneasy feeling in my stomach as I approached the exquisite creature standing behind the podium. She was looking down; her hair was like a Pantene commercial, her skin like porcelain, and I could have…
There’s a lot to detest about The Breakfast Club, that 1985 movie about the group of high school kids who, forced to serve a day’s detention together, come to realize that despite their apparent differences, they’re all just people. Awww. The film introduced us to Judd Nelson, an actor skilled…
It’s the latest dining game in New York: Show up at a packed restaurant without a reservation, and lie through your teeth to get in. Hot spots like Nobu and Pastis are increasingly frequent victims of surprise parties insisting — often loudly — that they called to stake out a…
Her hair is exactly the color of copper electrical wire, freshly stripped of its insulation. Her jacket is decorated with little cutouts of puppy dogs. And then, of course, there are the trademark eyes — gazing at me, girlish and mirthful, through harlequin ovals of mascara and eye shadow. Tammy…
It looks like a cooking class, and it smells like one. But this is not a cooking class. And Tanya Ferguson, who is wearing an apron and slicing carrots, is not a cook.”There are three things that come with most kitchens that I think are not necessary,” Ferguson says, as…
Arizona’s dining scene is exploding at record levels, bringing unheard of variety and competition to every corner of the Valley. Last year, in fact, Arizona experienced the nation’s third-largest increase in restaurant revenues, and is projected to be among the country’s top three again in 2001. With more than 8,300…
What a difference 15 years makes. It was 1986, and the Valley’s cuisine consisted of steak, spaghetti and, on a wild night, maybe a burrito or nachos. But that same year, Vincent Guerithault hit the scene, opening Vincent’s on Camelback, and bringing with him such never-heard-of French-Southwestern tastes as duck…
In show business, it borders on an axiom that the actors who play the villains tend to be the nice guys in real life. If it’s true, then Len Lesser should be one of the sweetest guys you’d ever want to meet. Nasty, rotten human beings are this veteran character…
I’m a longtime restaurant person. I’ve been the dishwasher, the head waiter and the manager. I consider myself a good evaluator of service.My passion is dining out at all types of restaurants. I don’t look for the Mary Elaine’s touches when I eat at Carlsbad Tavern. Each level of restaurant…
Western Pizza In most circles, any person venturing out of the house after midnight invites suspicion. Little good can come from folks rambling about at this dark hour. Late-night frolickers are getting drunk, they’re cruising the opposite sex with purely physical intent, or they’re looking to pick a fight. How…
As a child growing up in China, Sonia Tang remembers one of her favorite after-school snacks was a bowl of yam balls topped with shaved ice and sweetened cream.Now, as owner of Taiwan Express, Tang has found a new market for her old childhood treat. These days, though, the balls…
Some Ahwatukee residents are up in arms over boobs in their neighborhood. Hooters, to be exact. The restaurant and bar — known primarily for its perky waitresses dipped in skintight short-shorts and tank tops — is scheduled to open this week at 48th Street and Chandler Boulevard. But if members…
Even though they may spend hours in the place during any given week, David and Diana Mullins insist that they don’t mind having lunch at Chevys. They generally don’t get to eat there, after all. They are, rather, father-and-daughter members of that mysterious sect of people who approach you at…
Harry, our waiter at George & Son’s Asian Cuisine, is explaining why no chopsticks are included with the cutlery on the tables of this new restaurant. Too many patrons in the upscale north Scottsdale neighborhood have confessed they’re unable to control the slippery sticks, he says, so management decided that…
The bulldozers have been busy on the north side of Camelback Mountain these past several months, churning one of the Valley’s legendary resort properties into dust. Gone is the historic John Gardiner’s Tennis Ranch. Arriving soon is the mystically named — and cosmically inspired — Sanctuary. With it comes a…
His name is Stephen Greenhorn, and it’s appropriate to his current situation — he’s never been to Phoenix before, never been out West before at all. But at the moment, he’s getting the whole picture. We’ve just been seated for lunch at the Compass Restaurant, atop the downtown Hyatt. Greenhorn…
For astrologer Dana Haynes, timing is everything. “Astrology is all about cycles,” she says, “and everything works with timing.”So Haynes, who has a comedian’s knack for it, has selected a Thursday evening two weeks after Thanksgiving, when Christmas lights are up and seasonal shopping is well under way, to suggest…
In-N-Out Burger, 7467 East Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard, Scottsdale, unpublished phone number. Also 1525 Dysart Road, Avondale. Hours: Lunch and dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 1 a.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. The Sony PlayStation2 has been packed away, the thrill evaporated just a few…
There’s a little Liz Habib in all of us. Even the most puritanical in the bungling bunch known as mankind likely has overindulged in alcohol at least once in his life. With New Year’s Eve approaching this weekend, it’s pretty much a given that come Monday, a lot of us…
“My jail!”That’s how Yakov Shalomaef describes the place where he spends his weekdays, the workroom at the rear of his shoe-repair shop. It seems odd to hear an immigrant from Russia describe his circumstances thus, rather than with the usual immigrant’s litany of: “My God, there’s so much opportunity here,…
